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Friday, 4 January 2013

Dealing with Soiling/Encopresis

My 3 year old has always found having a number 2 hard work, when she was in a nappy her routine was about every 3-4 days. She would sit in a position with her bottom in the air and would find this action obviously painful. Being a first time mum as well as working in a nursery prior who had never come across bad constipation I just comforted her when it was painful but let her get on with the task when she was not in pain.
In June she was 3 years 2 months and we thought the time of toilet training was right as she was becoming to want to wee on the toilet, so we said bye bye to the nappies. She immediately became wee toilet trained with only a few half accidents which was great but I noticed that she was opening her bowels in the exact way she would with a nappy. She would squat where ever she was a the time and push a huge movement out. I did think at the time this was a common thing and my bright 3 year old would crack this in no time. Oh how wrong was I.
It is now January 6 months later and we are much worse. After I explained she couldn't poo in her pants she started to hold it in and would eventually poo in a nappy when at home but it began to change consistency. After this I noticed watery bowel movement that she seems to not notice it happening. Luckly I have a friend whose son suffered for a few years and she explained that this is not the main faece and suggested to go the doctors and get Movicol.
This I did but the doctor couldn't tell me how to use it and how much. Pretty useless really. I then put her on only for her to become worse. I was changing a nappy way more that 10 times a day as it was just pouring out and I didn't want her becoming sore. I know it sounds horrible. I stopped as I felt this was nit helping.
As we got no better I thought lets try lactolose and it did help and she was going every 2 evenings with a lot of support and encouraging. We thought we had cracked it. We again were wrong. We were back to square one.
I did try movicol but I didn't understand how her poo could be so loose so again I stopped. It would get to a point that I could see her poo but it would be there for days so she is obviously backed up. Constantly wiping the overflow to the point I could be forever wiping.
We are now at the point where she will feel a movement and run and hide sit down and clench every muscle in her body until the urge has passed, this will happen continually. If I get her it is too late, I sit her on the toilet and she refuses to even push a little bit.

I then called the department who specialise and she gave me some tips so we are working through them as well as finding some information out on the internet.

All I can say if you are a parent in my position is that you are not alone and is very common. I am sure you would agree with me when I say that there should be more help and support out there. Encopresis is very stressful for both the child and the parent and it much harder that people would think. I never imagined crying over my daughter refusing to go to the toilet.